Chapter 58: Convergence

Orson was walking toward the hover bike rental as they moved. He was lost in thought about that Demon of Enmity and what Robin said about the bastard. It just started to make sense, but there were still so many questions.

Orson—first, what was that monster doing in the moon? And the aura it was releasing too—was the demon on the moon, or was the moon itself the demon? And also, that demon was cruel, but the aura it was releasing was to kill. That was all. And how did the bastard stay alive from the Murim era to now?

Orson just sighed. There was nothing he could do about it.

But still, the weapon Robin had given him was strange. He opened his system to check what the blade was about. And as he opened his status, the display appeared in front of him. It had been a while since he checked the system.

Name: Orson.

Astral Being Host: Not contacted

Astral Rank: Human

Class: White Hollow

Ability: None yet.

Orson looked at the first half of the display. He was still a human with no power, and his class was a bit surprising. He had already researched it, but there was no white life gate in the world. Well, whatever. He continued to look down.

New Power Source Detected: Cultivation of the old world

Spiritual Root: White Hollow

Realm: Qi Gathering

Stage: Mid (at a bottleneck)

Now it made sense. Back when Orson’s soul—Xander—was in the former world, apart from the seven realms of cultivation, there was also a spiritual root. This was what people used to gauge your talent. When Orson was told about the class, he just thought nothing of it. But now, looking at his class and spiritual root, he understood. They were the same—from the Crimson root being the least talented to the Violet root. And back in his world, Xander was blessed with a deep Violet root, making him reach immortality very easily. But now it was white.

He reached the hover bike and checked his credits. He had 150,000 credits left after giving Robin 250,000 as a deposit. He sighed, hoping the weapon was worth all this. Before paying to rent one.

Orson had memories of riding the hover bike, but then again, remembering it and having to do it are two different things. He looked down at the bike, smiled at the owner, and gave him some money before hooking the hover bike and walking off. He wanted to check the rest of his status.

[ ABILITIES & INVENTORY ]

Items and Weapons: None

Innate Abilities Gained: None

[ ASTRAL PROJECTION ]

Nameless Nightmare

There it was—the weapon Robin gave him. Wait, this was not a weapon. Orson stopped, trying to remember what Astral Projections are. Right. They are the souls of Dark Ones killed that will help the person fight. They are like familiars. But this did not look like one.

Orson tapped on the weapon itself as it appeared.

[Nameless Nightmare.]

Description: A blade forged from the soul-ash of a forgotten demon of fear. Wielding it means drawing on the absolute dark of terror itself.

Passive Ability.

(Mirror of Dread.)

(Manifest Phobia.)

(Abyssal Reflection.)

(Oneiric Gaze.)

Note: One of the seven original instruments hammered out by the Demon of Fear. It commands an intrinsic authority recognized by anything capable of feeling dread.

Orson looked at it. The Demon of Fear. He was just learning about the demons of the astral plane, but the ones he was learning about were different from the ones in the underworld. And there is nothing like the Demon of Fear. But still, it may be a good weapon. And the abilities look like there are four. He looked at the abilities, picking it to check what he was getting. All the abilities are passive abilities, and there were no active ones.

(Mirror of Dread): A weapon of living darkness that shifts its shape to match whatever form an opponent fears most.

So the weapon is based on what a person fears. Orson did not really understand. Do people have fear of particular weapons? He just continued to read. Second was:

(Manifest Phobia): It drags hidden phobias out of a target’s mind, giving them physical form in the real world.

I can bring out what people fear the most. Really. Wow.

(Abyssal Reflection): Enveloped in dread, the blade intercepts incoming kinetic and elemental attacks, twisting their path to throw them right back at the attacker.

Wow. This ability was like the Saintess blade ability, he thought as he read. The last one.

(Oneiric Gaze): It pierces the conscious mind, allowing the wielder to look directly into anyone’s nightmares.

Orson just read it and again before sighing. The abilities of this blade were just so-so.

Orson looked down at the weapon, and his expression changed when he saw the last words in the weapon. Astral Burden.

He sighed to himself.

—

Meanwhile, a ship appeared out of nowhere above the sky, before the wound of the world.

Sen landed the ship in front of the breach before walking out. But before he did, there was no telling if he would leave for what he was about to do. But he had to save Rain. So he took out a new vape and took a puff before releasing it to calm his body.

There was work to be done, he thought as he took his navy blue robe and walked out of the ship.

The polluted air was the first thing Sen felt as he walked out. He took his case out as the sun was shining down onto the world. He stepped out as the Eternal Breach was shining down on him like a living void to another world. The breach looked like a terrifying existence that wounded the reality of humanity’s world. It was pulsing with an emerald light like a living virus as Sen looked at it before looking away.

He had work to do.

He took out his case as he looked at it. The blade inside—he did not want to touch it or even look at it. But he had to use the blade.

Sen looked down and popped the latch of the case. Inside lay a single, bare sword hilt—nothing more.

He took another drag of smoke, exhaled, and reached his hand toward the metal.

The air around the hilt did not just bend; it fractured. Fine, spiderweb lines tore through the space around his fingers, shattering reality like a dropped pane of glass before the fragments snapped violently back into place.

His fingers closed around the hilt.

The blade woke.

It did not slide from a scabbard. Instead, the cracked pieces of reality itself drifted up from the air, shifting and locking together around the hilt like glass shards assembling mid-air to form a complete edge. Before he touched it, there had been nothing. Now, he held a weapon forged from fractured space—a Saintess-tier, Transcendent-level blade whose very body was made of shattered, reassembled reality.

He sighed, knowing the price to hold a blade like this, and walked forward toward the breach.

As he entered the breach, the polluted air gave way to sunshine—but there was no sun. Just a beam of sun shooting into the sky. It had been three hours since the beam had shot at the sky.

Sen walked forward. He had work to do. The blade in his hand moved, and one of the pieces of space opened toward the air as a space opened in the air to show the edge of the main island.

Sen was planning to enter the water to find Rain. He took a deep breath before sighing to himself and walking into the space he opened. And then he appeared in front of the edge of the island. Below him was an ocean that gave him chills even just looking at it.

I should be at home eating and selling, but no—I have to save that cold queen.

He was about to enter when he heard a boom from above the sky and saw two floating islands hitting each other. The explosion was loud, sending dust everywhere. It was too high up for Sen to see. And he thought nothing of it.

—

Meanwhile, the Silver Rain Guild—Lucas and his other three men—had fallen onto an island after the beam shot up. They had been trying to get up, but weirdly enough, it was hard for them. And most of the beasts on the island were far deadlier than before, with Gold-class beasts and Amber-class beasts as well. And they were Resonant rankers, so dealing with beasts like this was harder than before. But still, so few rankers had joined them as well. They were also heading for where the light was coming from.

Lucas was just trying to find Rain. So he thought she might be in the temple that was sending a beam of light to the sky. And since his other members were there as well, he had to move. And with the help of the other Awakened, they moved faster as they leaped toward the next island.

Their aim was the temple.

Sen, meanwhile, looked down at the ocean, having second thoughts. But still, he chose to save Rain. But just as he was about to do so—

A boom sounded.

Every contractor fighting to be the first to reach the temple felt the temple shake as the beam of light that was shining stopped. At first, nothing happened. But as everyone looked—

A Titan’s hand shot out of the sky with killing intent, like a god descending into the mortal realm to kill.